Portugal Bailout Lamented in Song

Portugal’s Homens Da Luta perform during a dress rehearsal for the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Duesseldorf.

A pan-European project that expanded rapidly to include the peripheral countries returns to Germany this week for a high-profile, closely-watched event where diplomatic relations, financing concerns and subtle political messages are the order of the day. No, it’s not another secret meeting of triple-A-rated euro-zone countries: It’s Eurovision time again!

Homens Da Luta, who will sing The Struggle Is Joy, have come up with a politics-packed staging of their routine including red-and-green lighting to commemorate the country’s 1974 revolution, outfits symbolizing Portugal’s history (which, apparently, shares a lot with that of the Village People), and lyrics that tackle the Lusophone nation’s parlous economic state:

Advertisement

There’s no point in tightening the belt

There’s no point in complaining

There’s no point in frowning

And rage is pointless, it won’t help you

Indeed, the €78 billion ($115.69 billion) financial bailout the country agreed with the IMF and EU last week will likely cause the Portuguese economy to contract by around 2% in 2011 and 2012, meaning that Homens Da Luta can’t afford to do too well when it comes to the voting, as hosting the competition next year — the winner’s honor — would likely add to the country’s budget problems.

Many people advise you to watch out

Many people wish to silence you

Many people want you to feel resentful

Many people want to sell you the air itself

This, surely, is a thinly-veiled reference to the multiple downgrades suffered by the country recently and IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn saying the package will require a “sacrifice” by the Portuguese people.

Moreover, just as some question the compatibility of the EU bailout package with the bloc’s treaties, Homens Da Luta, are being purposely vague with their lyrics in order to stay on the right side of Section 4, Rule 9 of the Eurovision Song Contest, which, just to recap, states that “No lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political or similar nature shall be permitted during the Eurovision Song Contest.”

This kind of specific political message is what saw Georgia’s 2009 entry excluded on the grounds of it’s Putin-baiting lyrics, bringing an unprecedented convergence to geopolitical tension in the former Soviet bloc and magenta sequin disco hot pants. According to Homens Da Luta, though, the message is more of a generalist call to feel good about Portugal.

“Our song doesn’t speak badly of Germany or any other country,” lyricist Jel told the BBC. “We go to Germany to show Europe that Portuguese people are not sad people. We are happy people who want to live with all our brothers in Europe.”

Update: Unfortunately for Jel and his bandmates, Portugal won’t be in the final on Saturday as they were eliminated in the first of two semi-finals on Tuesday night. Since the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) expanded, there are 43 countries in the competition this year, but only 25 slots in the final. Five go automatically to the EBU’s biggest contributors, while ten countries go through from each semi-final. Portugal’s failure to reach the final can’t be blamed on the country’s parlous finances, as successful countries included fellow bailout recipients Greece, banking-sector-car-crash Iceland and Hungary, which has its own economic difficulties.

The next semi-final takes place Thursday night. Watch this space for more in depth analysis.

You should really learn something about a country before writing about it . And use a better translator. Making a simple mistake translating "there is no point" ( não vale a pela) instead of "what the value of"(de que vale) shows that you really need to be portuguese to know the diference .Comparind the caracters of "homens da Luta" with Village People , just shows how ignorant you are about Portuguese history , and its struggle agains fascism. You should really take a look in the mirror first ant then talk about a country that for example has a Nacional Health Service available to ALL citizens . i recomend you a llitle video on Youtube called "message from Potugal to Finland"

About Real Time Brussels

The Wall Street Journal’s Brussels blog is produced by the Brussels bureau of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. The bureau has been headed since 2009 by Stephen Fidler, who was previously a correspondent and editor for the Financial Times and Reuters. Also posting regularly: Matthew Dalton, Viktoria Dendrinou, Tom Fairless, Naftali Bendavid, Laurence Norman, Gabriele Steinhauser and Valentina Pop.